Mall Trip
by Mimi Dear
Summary: Two best friends go shopping. Ino x Sakura, friendship. AU, if you squint a little.
1. Thongs, baby

Just a little drabble-thingy. I've been attacked by plot bunnies recently ..

Anyways. Ino and Sakura go shopping. Kind of girl-themed. No gossip or lame jokes about monthly curses. ButumtheydotalkaboutChojiinathong.

Enjoy!

----

Sakura watches her body in the mirror, turning side to side and examining herself with slight interest. Dressed in nothing but a striped bra and bikini-type pair of red underwear, she raises an eyebrow at the small lump of a stomach that pokes out cutely. Her frame is a desired one- slender, with natural curves, and the gentle shape of muscles beginning to show.

Her short pink hair is still wet- the tips gently brush her shoulders, and the pink tresses are held straight back from her face with a headband. Her hair's slight waves are beginning to show; but Ino will be here soon to straighten it for her.

There are three knocks at her door. Well, speak of the devil.

"Who is it?" Sakura calls, reaching for her bathrobe just in case it's her mother.

"Me." calls Ino, stepping inside as she speaks. Sakura leaves the robe, and instead heads over to her dresser, gesturing Ino to come with.

Opening up several drawers, and disrupting Sakura's mother's neat stacking of folded shirts (her pink-haired friend laughs at the spaz-out this will earn from her parent), she picks out a lowcut, racerback tank and a pair of fashionably ripped and expensive dark denim, threadbare and ripped in the thigh, knees, and... behind.

Sakura gets dressed, Ino's back facing her as she files her nails idly. Ino calls to her that she'll never guess who she ran into today. Sakura wiggles into the skintight jeans and automatically answers, 'Who?'

She swears she can hear Ino grin, though all she can see is the blonde's long ponytail, like that of a gypsy, and her curvy frame, seated crosslegged on the bed. It was that Hyuuga boy, says Ino, Neny or Neji or Neki or something dumb like that. Sakura laughs at Ino's cruelty.

Sakura asks Ino if she should straighten her waved, slightly curled pink hair. Ino shakes her head, and produces a bottle of volumizing gel from her purse. She splatters some over her soft hands, running them through her friend's locks and poofing them with a grin.

Now ready, Sakura grabs a sequined purse, stuffed in her cellphone, makeup, and other needed things, and she and Ino set off, yelling goodbyes and vague words telling where they were going and when they were coming back to Sakura's mother as they romp down the stairs and out the front door, and then into Ino's father's aged convertible.

The mall is packed- they're forced to park eight or nine rows away from the back entrance; but they don't care, as long as they're here. The moment the automatic doors slide open and the long hallway of the mall is revealed, yells and shouts and incessant chattering falls upon their ears, and Ino grins at Sakura.

They shop for hours, going into all different types of stores; clothes, shoes, jewelry... even a sock specialty store.

Sakura goes running for Express, gleefully pulling things off racks and holding them to her body to see how they fit. Ino waits patiently outside the dressing room, filing her nails and tell Sakura what she thinks of certain outfits when the pink-haired girl pops from the room eagerly.

In the more crowded stores, Ino and Sakura share a dressing room, always asking the opinion of the other before buying anything. They find things like tropical, ruffly miniskirts, longsleeve, v-neck tees in paperthin cloth, striped beanies, and all sorts of flip-flops and purses.

The most interesting trip is into Victoria's Secret. Ino holds up a lacy thong with a forefinger and waves it at Sakura, teasingly asking her if she'd like to see Choji in it. Both break out laughing and nearly knock over a mannequin as they cackle. The blonde eventually convinces Sakura to buy a new padded bra, to "boost her self-esteem and her rack", and laughs when Sakura can't even look eye-to-eye with the obviously gay male salesperson who rings it up for her.

They're on their way to the food court, and have already passed Abercrombie & Fitch and its shirtless male models, when Ino lays eyes on the most gorgeous dress she's ever seen. It's wound around the curvaceous body of a mannequin in the store window, and a rich, sky blue color. The dress is an off-the-shoulder, and the sleeves are billowy and thin. The hem, addressed with beads of all sorts of other shades of blue, is slanted, and falls to the nonexistent knee of the mannequin at the lowest point and the mid-thigh at the highest.

Though Sakura is nearly collapsing beside her, complaining of sore feet and the weight of her shopping bags pulling on her slender arms, Ino drags her inside, quickly commanding the lazy sales girl to fetch her that dress in the window so she can try it on.

Ino rushes into the dressing room with it, and quickly returns, spinning and holding out the edge of the dress as she displays herself to her best friend. Sakura's eyes widen and a grin spreads across her face- Ino looks simply beautiful.

The blues of the dress accented her eyes, and the paleness of her skin and the shade of her hair transformed her into a beachside mermaid, calm and soothing in appearance but gypsylike in wit and the smile that curves mischeviously over her features.

Ino's fingers fished for the price tag, and the groan that was strung from her lips echoed through the store. "Two hundred and fifty dollars!" she whined, crossing her arms and leaning against the nearby wall with a grumble. "That's how much I've already spent all today." she grumbled, tossing her hand at the large pile of shopping bags pooled at Sakura's feet.

Sakura gave her a look of pity, and sighed. It was indeed a beautiful dress- and a shame that Ino couldn't afford it right now.

Ino grudgingly put the dress back on a hanger and handed it to the salesgirl, and Sakura offered her a meal of freshly cooked teriyaki in the food court, her treat. Immediately, Ino let out a grin. It would be great to break her diet.

The mall was nearly empty now, and Sakura took all of her bags, including her purse, and handed Ino her wallet so she could order while Sakura got them seats. The blonde didn't notice when Sakura slid into a booth and began fishing through Ino's purse, carefully watching her friend to see if she looked in her direction.

The two ate, Ino cackling when Sakura looked up from her eating and had sauce all over her mouth, and sharing a large soda, two bendy straws poking out the top. Each had a large order, piled high with the cooked meat, and both were only able to eat half. Pinching closed the takeout box, and proclaiming it tomorrow's breakfast, Ino stood to her feet and stretched. "C'mon girly, let's go home. It's been a hard day of shopping."

They drove home in near silence, save the radio murmuring away, Sakura's arm held out the window and riding the whipping night breeze. Ino dropped her friend off at her house, waving goodbye and calling to her that she'd see her tomorrow at work.

When Ino got home, she lugged all her shopping bags up the stairs with her at once, and nearly knocked over her mother's vase, sighing in relief when it fell from the dresser onto the cushiony couch without damage. Making it to her room without breaking anything, she deposited the bags on the floor and plopped onto her bed, grumbling at herself that she should go wash off her makeup and exfoliate before going to sleep. She fumbled for her purse and looked for her cell phone, to see exactly what time it was- and on the way, found a small wad of money with a note pinned lovingly to it.

It read, 'Hey babe. Here's thirty bucks for your 'Dream Dress' fund. You can pay me back in lip gloss. Love, Sakura.'

Ino stared at it for a moment, before busting out laughing and reminding herself to ask Sakura what flavor lip gloss she wanted tomorrow.

--

Reviews love.


	2. Beautification

It was a quiet, sunny Monday morning in Ino's wealthy suburban neighborhood, being one of the many late days of summer, with school's vacation coming to a close, and little did the families of Lily Spray Lane know what horror would befall them that afternoon.

The previous night had been awful enough for them; Sakura and Ino had enjoyed an all-night sleepover moviefest and currently lay conked out on the carpet of the living room. Neither one had made it past five that morning, nor even twenty minutes in to "Justin and Kelly" (rented simply because it was an awful movie).

Ino's father simply looked at the girls with quirked brows, sipping his coffee and dressed in boxer pajamas and an old gym shirt, when Ino stirred suddenly at found herself locked in a gaze with him, mildly noting to herself how freakishly similar their eyes were.

Her usual nit-picking returned, even though she had only gotten two hours of sleep so far and was actually half asleep at that moment, and she grimaced at her dad. "Aaah, dad, you can't put on a robe or something?" she whined, splattering her slender fingers over her eyes in a makeshift manner, her bright blue eyes peeking out at him through her slender fingers, carefully painted red nails in beautiful contrast to her skin.

He only grinned, suddenly proud to have embarrassed his daughter, and strutted in a self-important manner towards the refridgerator. To his delight, Sakura started to wake up, and he immediately laughed when Ino's previously faint blush grew deeper and deeper.

"Ino," whispered Sakura discreetly, "...why is your dad wearing happy face boxers?"

"Shut up, Sakura." hissed Ino, grabbing her pillow and shoving it over her friend's eyes. She fumbled up stiffly from her place on the soft white carpet and went stomping over to her father, shooing him out of the room despite his playful protests.

"What a dork." she hissed with a grin, plopping down on the couch near her friend and turning on the TV. Sakura slid up from the floor to the couch sleepily, clutching the plush bedcover they had ripped off Ino's bed last night and dragged downstairs to sit on while they watched TV, and yawned widely.

There were a few minutes of silence, in which both watched the Muppets sing about happiness, when Ino turned to Sakura and said, "You know what we should do today?"

"What?" she asked.

"Be pretty."

Sakura glared at her. Ino quirked a brow at her and suddenly broke out laughing.

"I didn't mean it as an insult. I meant we should do some face masques and stuff." she laughed, adjusting her slenderly-strapped camisole and examining her nails momentarily.

--

Once Ino's father was safely out of the house and to work, and her mother was out for a day of errands, Sakura grabbed the phone and called for a pizza. Truly, there was nothing better with face masques and nail painting than pizza.

"Let's see... here's some masque with peaches, and here's one with some kind of mint thing. And some nail files, a cuticle-trimmer, strengthening polish, nail clippers- wow, I'm actually glad my mom is so vain right about now." she giggled, rifling through the medicine cabinent in her parent's bedroom and pulling out her favorite bottles of her mother's perfume, teeth whitening strips, nail polish colors, scented lotions, and tweezers and mirror.

All of this stuff she tossed into Sakura's arms, and told her to take it into the living room so they could watch television while they applied everything. Running into her bedroom and then the bathroom, nabbing a couple of bathrobes, washcloths, and even a soda as she passed the refridgerator.

Sakura was thrilled to see the robes. "Ah!" she giggled, pulling on the plush terrycloth and snuggling into it most comfortably, and despite the warm weather outside, the swamp cooler in the home kept things freezing old inside.

Grabbing a huge glop of the peach face masque, Ino smeared it carefully over her face, and Sakura did the same with the minty one. Ino broke out in mad laughter upon seeing her best friend's face turned completely green, but Sakura informed her with an equally hysterical laugh that the blonde's face looked like it was dripping with chicken grease.

Next came the whitestrips. Although they tasted a bit gross, and the clothy strips felt very strange over her teeth, Sakura managed, and Ino was very disappointed to see that there weren't enough in the box left for her. Glancing over the box, Ino found out that the strips weren't very heavy duty, and were really only for a light cleaning effect.

Heading back downstairs and plopping down on the floor, and nabbing a pair of tweezers, Ino made a sudden lunge at Sakura, grinning and pincing the tweezers open and closed.

"Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. How many times have I told you that you need to pluck those silly Haruno eyebrows? They're not thin enough for a girl." she teased, although completely serious about pulling hair from her friend's face.

Sakura gulped. "Ino. You're my friend, and I trust you, and I want skinny eyebrows, but... I... uuh, I- um, I don't trust you."

Ino narrowed her eyes.

"If you don't let me pluck your eyebrows, I will tell your mother about that one day when you left the house in a turtleneck and changed into a ultra-low cut shirt when you got to school."

"So what?" questioned Sakura daringly, "That's not that bad."

"...and don't think I didn't see you 'adjust' your bra so noticeably right next to one Rock Lee." grinned Ino mischeviously.

Sakura's jaw dropped and clearly submitted. There was no arguing with Ino's blackmail. Everyone knew that every adult alive knew that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty was completely trustworthy.

Twenty minutes and seven shrieks of pain later (Ino had accidentally grabbed parts of Sakura's skin and not hair), when Sakura's left eyebrow was perfectly shaped and plucked, and her best friend was just starting on her right one, when the doorbell rang.

"The pizza!" cried Sakura gleefully, grabbed her wallet off the counter, and she and Ino set off to collect their lunch.

Swinging open the front door, Ino and Sakura, previously forgetting their thick face masques, bathrobes, whitestriped teeth, and Sakura's one plucked eyebrow, now remembered, as they stared into the face of one extremely surprised Uzumaki Naruto.

A cap advertising "Akimichi Pizza Co." was tossed lopsidedly over his wild blonde hair, and his beach tanned skin flattering with the cool blue polo shirt he wore, he just stared at Ino and Sakura, growing a bit red in the cheeks.

"Uh- uhm, wh- well, here's your pizza, Ino." he finally mustered, flashing a bright white smile and attempting to appear comfortable. "It'll be fifteen twenty."

Ino ripped the wallet from Sakura's hands, furious at Naruto, and as she fished for money, Naruto sent the pink-haired beauty a flustered, happy smile.

"Hi Sakura."

Nervous by this attention, especially while covered in such embarrassing stuff as green goop and teeth-whitening strips, she could barely muster a "hi, how are you, Naruto?"

However, because of the teeth strips, her words came out muffled and stupid-sounding.

"Haii, howe ar yuu, Nahruto?" she said, starting to laugh when she heard how silly her voice was. Ino stuffed the money at Naruto, and took the pizza from his hands, waving sarcastically to him as she slammed the door.

"Bye Sakura!" he yelled through the door, and the two girls heard him break out in laughter as he walked down Ino's front yard to his car.

Once they were safely back in the living room, Sakura's whitestripes discarded in the trash, she said, "That is undeniably one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me. I hope nothing that stupid and cliched ever happens to me again."

It was at that exact moment that Ino vaguely remembered her father briefly telling her something about having business asscociates over Monday and how she was supposed to do some-

Her blue eyes grew wide when the squeaking of black leather shoes became noticeable and men's laughter reached her ears, and how quickly these sounds were becoming closer and closer.

She regretted having to inform Sakura that, in fact, this was going to be very embarrassing. 


End file.
